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Potassium is essential for preventing strokes, building muscles, breaking down carbs, maintaining body growth and most importantly maintaining fluid balance in the body. To ensure that your potassium levels are optimal we recommend trying out the lectin avoidance diet, we have created a cookbook that makes eating one of the healthiest diets in our opinion and experience easy and delicious. Check it out here. Continue to read more about the various other health benefits of this macromineral.

Potassium is required for the production of carbohydrates, proteins, and energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (R).

A large number of enzymes that participate in several major metabolic processes require the presence of potassium to function properly (R).

Western diets with more processed foods and fewer fruits and vegetables are lower in potassium and higher in sodium. Healthier diets consumed by our ancestors are richer in potassium (R).

Therefore, diets higher in potassium is associated with many positive health outcomes. However, this association may be because diets higher in potassium are generally healthier rather than the higher potassium content itself.

1) Potassium Reduces Blood Pressure

Previous studies have found that potassium may lower blood pressure substantially in hypertensive patients who consume a lot of sodium (R1, R2).

A high potassium intake does not or only minimally decreases blood pressure in humans with normal blood pressure (R).

An increase in potassium intake of at least 20 mmol (0.78 g) per day was associated with a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure by 4.9 mm Hg and diastolic pressure by 2.7 mm Hg (R).

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, which is also rich in potassium, resulted in reductions in blood pressure by 5 mm Hg systolic and 3 mm Hg diastolic.

This diet also decreased the risk for coronary heart disease by 20% and stroke by 34% (R, R2).

African Americans have a relatively low intake of potassium and a high prevalence of elevated blood pressure and salt sensitivity. Therefore, they would especially benefit from an increased intake of potassium (R, R2).

Blood pressure-lowering effect of potassium may be related to its diuretic activity, and effects on nervous system, blood vessels, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and natriuretic hormone (R).

Increasing the dietary potassium intake from natural foods reduces the need for antihypertensive medication in patients with essential hypertension.

38% of hypertensive patients on the high-potassium diet had well-controlled blood pressure without any need for drug therapy (R).

2) High Potassium Intake May Protect Against Stroke

Human and animal studies have suggested that increased potassium intake may protect against stroke (R, R2).

The study indicated that an average increase of 1.64 g of potassium per day is associated with a 21% reduced risk of stroke (R).

A 10-mmol increase in daily potassium intake was associated with a 40% reduction in stroke-associated mortality among 859 individuals over the span of 12 years (R, R2).

A greater fruit and vegetable intake protects against the occurrence of stroke. More than 5 servings of fruit and vegetables per day are associated with a 26% lower rate of stroke compared with 3 or fewer servings (R).

A lower blood potassium level in both diuretic users and those not taking diuretics was associated with increased stroke incidence among older individuals (R, R2).

3) Potassium Might Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

A number of animal studies confirmed that increased potassium intake protects against cardiovascular disease (R).

The balance between potassium and sodium is more strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease than either sodium or potassium intake alone (R).

Patients with congestive heart failure should routinely be given potassium supplementation, a potassium-sparing diuretic, or an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, even if their initial potassium measurement is normal (4.0 mmol/l) (R).

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, a study of 12,267 US adults, showed that higher potassium intake was associated with a lower cardiovascular and all-cause risk of dying (R).

High dietary potassium intake in Japanese men and women is associated with lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease and total cardiovascular disease (R).

On the other hand, some studies show no association between potassium intake and the risks of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular death (R, R2).

4) Potassium May Decrease the Risk of Diabetes

Potassium is important for insulin secretion from the pancreatic cells (R, R2).

7) Potassium Decreases the Risk of Osteoporosis

Supplementation with potassium is associated with an increased rate of bone formation and decreased bone degradation (R, R2).

In postmenopausal women, treatment with potassium bicarbonate for 18 days (R) and combined treatment with potassium citrate and calcium citrate for 3 months reduces bone loss, especially in women on a high salt diet (R, R2).

8) Potassium-Rich Diet Defends Against the Loss of Muscle Mass

Higher intake of foods rich in potassium may favor the preservation of muscle mass in older men and women (R).

In elderly with dietary deficiency of potassium, increased intake had anti-aging effects (R).

Potassium-rich foods relieve an acidic environment in the body caused by eating the typical Western diet that is rich in meat, dairy, and processed food, and protect from loss of bone density and muscle wasting (R).

9) Potassium Has an Antioxidant Activity

Dietary potassium may protect against cardiovascular damage through its antioxidant effects (R).

Potassium supplementation prevents the development of an autoimmune and inflammatory disease. It has a blocking effect on interleukin IL-17A production in T lymphocytes (R).

10) Potassium May Reduce Adverse Effects of Lithium

Lithium is widely used for the treatment of manic-depressive psychosis. The most common toxic side effects are kidney-related, such as (R):

nephrogenic diabetes insipidus – excessive urination and thirst due to a kidney problem

distal tubular acidosis – increased acidity in the body to a malfunction in part of the kidney

impairment of the kidney’s ability to concentrate urine

Studies suggest that potassium supplementation protects against nephrogenic diabetes insipidus by decreasing the reabsorption of lithium from the kidneys (R).

Potassium also increases elimination of lithium from the tissues, protecting against the potentially toxic accumulation of lithium (R).

11) Potassium Intake May Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease Onset

An increase in potassium intake may be important in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease onset as a non-pharmacological therapy (R).

Increased potassium intake leads to a change in the aggregation of the amyloid-beta peptide in brain tissues, improvement in the cognitive performance, and a decrease in markers related to inflammation and oxidative stress (R).

13) Potassium Helps with Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain

Nearly half of those who took 6000 mg of potassium daily for 28 days reported a 33% reduction in their arthritis pain intensity. Another one-third of the participants reported a moderate decrease in pain (R).

Potassium containing supplements are available in the form of salts: gluconate, citrate, chloride, bicarbonate, and acetate.

They are commonly used to treat low levels of potassium in patients who do not have enough potassium in their regular diet or have lost potassium due to illness or treatment with certain medication (R).

Supplemental potassium should be provided under medical supervision due to potential toxicity (R, R2).

Bioavailability

Approximately 90% of dietary potassium is absorbed in the small intestine by passive diffusion (R).

The potassium is primarily balanced by kidney excretion in urine. Approximately 80-90% is excreted in urine, while the remainder is excreted mainly in feces, with much smaller amounts being lost in sweat (R).

Because it is easily excreted by the kidneys rather than stored in the body, humans need constantly consume potassium.

Dosage

Recommended adequate intake of potassium for adults is set at 4.7 g/day (R).

Severely decreased potassium levels may lead to muscle injury, paralysis, abnormal heart rhythms and impaired respiration that can be fatal (R).

Side effects

There are no reports of adverse effects associated with potassium naturally occurring in food in healthy individuals (R).

Abdominal discomfort has been reported with slow-release and wax matrix formulations as well as oral solutions of potassium salts, but not with potassium from the diet (R).

Potassium chloride irritates upper digestive tract especially in association with delayed stomach emptying. Lesions and ulcerations of the gut lining have been seen (R, R2).

In patients with impaired kidney function or those who take potassium-sparing diuretics, angiotensin receptor blockers, or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, high potassium intakes from diet and potassium-containing salt substitutes may lead to high potassium in the blood and life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms (R).

Contraindications

In patients with chronic kidney failure, potassium supplementation must be considered carefully because kidneys are the major regulator of potassium balance (R, R2).

Patients with previous history of ulcers and bleeding must be considered carefully for oral potassium supplementation because some potassium salts can be irritating to the gut lining (R, R2).

Serum Potassium

Serum potassium is the amount of potassium in the fluid portion of the blood (serum).

The normal range for serum potassium is narrow (3.5 to 5.5 mmol/L), and minor departure from this range (by less than 1.0 mmol/L) is associated with significant risk of disease and dying (R).

The distribution of potassium between the intracellular and extracellular fluids can markedly affect the serum potassium level without a change in total body potassium (R).

Hypokalemia is defined as a serum potassium concentration of less than 3.5 mmol/L.

It may be caused by the entry of potassium into cells (regulated by insulin, acid-base status, aldosterone, and catecholamines), and a total body depletion of potassium due to kidney, gut, or sweat losses.

In pseudohyperkalemia, no toxic manifestation of hyperkalemia is present and no emergency therapy is required because the elevation of serum potassium concentration does not reflect the actual level of plasma potassium in the body.

It is caused by the destruction of red blood cells in the blood sample, prolonged application of a tourniquet or excessive fist clenching when drawing venous blood. Thrombocytosis (elevated platelets) and extreme leukocytosis (elevated white blood cells) can cause pseudohyperkalemia in serum (R, R2).

Both hypokalemia and hyperkalemia may cause asymptomatic changes on electrocardiogram, abnormal heart rhythms, muscle weakness, and death (R).

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JOE COHEN

CEO, SelfHacked

About Joe

Growing up, Joe was plagued with a myriad of health issues such as gut problems, autoimmune issues, chronic fatigue, brain fog, insomnia, and general inflammation. Both conventional and alternative doctors weren’t able to help him, so he decided to fix himself. With lots of health questions and few satisfying answers, Joe decided to read every research paper he could get his hands on and conduct thousands of experiments on his own body in order to fix his health issues. Joe started SelfHacked in late 2013 when he successfully fixed all of his issues, and now it gets millions of readers a month looking to educate themselves about how they can improve their health. Joe is now a thriving author, speaker, and serial entrepreneur, founding SelfDecode & LabTestAnalyzer.

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